Micro-Mute
Micro-Mute was a featherweight robot that competed in the final two featherweight championships of Robot Wars, in the second series of ''Robot Wars Extreme'' and The Seventh Wars respectively. It reached the final round in Extreme 2, but lost its heat in Series 7 after getting destroyed by the House Robots. Design Micro-Mute was an invertible, triangular-shaped robot painted black and silver and featuring a long low wedge and static spikes as its main weapons. The robot used Bosch 12V 120W motors for its drive system, overvolted to 24V, as well as 4QD speed controllers.Unofficial Robot Wars Facebook group These enabled Micro-Mute to reach an exceptionally high top speed of 30mph, allowing it to out-manouever and even cause damage to other competitors, for example, Katnip's wheel in the Extreme 2 Featherweight Championship. However, the robot was very difficult to control, its wheels were easily damaged and it was low enough to get completely wedged underneath angle grinders, which cost it victory in the Extreme 2 Featherweight final. The Team Micro-Mute was built by Staffordshire-based brothers, Adam and Daniel Emmett, with Adam Emmett being listed as the team captain, while Daniel Emmett was not present on the team in Series 7, despite competing with Mute in the same series. Jeremy Honcox took his place during the Seventh Wars. Team Mute also took part in the Extreme 2 New Blood Championship and Series 7 with heavyweight Mute, and Series 8 with heavyweight Bonk. Robot History Extreme 2 In its heat in the Extreme Series 2 Featherweight Championship, Micro-Mute was drawn up against Cutlet, Dragon, Flybot, Gladiator and Kitty. At the start of the battle, Micro-Mute became caught underneath an angle grinder, but was quickly freed by Refbot. Turning, Micro-Mute just missed a charge on Kitty, but then rammed into the side of Cutlet instead. It then attacked Gladiator, and held back for the rest of the fight while Dragon was pitted by Cutlet, and the latter was pitted by Gladiator. Micro-Mute followed soon after, throwing itself into the pit to avoid Shunt, where it joined Cutlet, Dragon, Flybot and Kitty. By the time cease was called, all of the featherweights and Refbot had ended up in the pit. As Kitty, Flybot and Dragon had fallen into the pit before it, Micro-Mute advanced through to the final of the Featherweight Championship. In the final, Micro-Mute went against Argh!, Bernard and Katnip, as well as Gladiator and Cutlet. In this battle, Micro-Mute missed an initial charge on Katnip; it then drove towards Gladiator at speed, but then turned away at the last second, stopping its attack. Micro-Mute began to spin on the spot, bashing into Argh! with its front end and deflecting Micro-Mute away. It continued spinning for a while longer, before charging underneath Katnip and Gladiator, carrying both machines on top of it as it sped across the arena floor, before both machines slipped off to the side. Micro-Mute held back for a while, before receiving a hit from the spinning Bernard as it edged towards it. As Micro-Mute began to spin on the spot once more, Katnip drove into its path, and the impact from Micro-Mute's spinning smashed one of Katnip's wheels off. While Katnip struggled with its mobility and Gladiator was upended by Argh!, Micro-Mute charged under Gladiator again, shoving it across the arena floor. Micro-Mute spun round in a circle several times besides the activated Floor Spinner, before missing a ram on Argh! and Cutlet. A second attack proved more successful for Micro-Mute, as it drove underneath the front of Argh!, who at this moment was carrying Cutlet on its rear wedge. Micro-Mute's attack sent the three machines onto the Floor Spinner, which spun all three robots away from each other. Little more was seen of Micro-Mute after this, other than a small bump into the back of Cutlet, as it got caught underneath one of the arena angle grinders, although this wasn't mentioned by Jonathan Pearce. Despite being unable to move, Refbot didn't count out Micro-Mute, so it was technically still mobile at the end of the battle when cease was called. However, the Judges awarded the win to the much more aggressive and destructive Argh!. Series 7 In the Featherweight Championship of the Seventh Wars, Micro-Mute participated in the final and smallest heat, where it fought Gi-Ant-O, Rampage 2 and Whipper. It became apparent from the beginning that one of Micro-Mute's wheels had seized up already, as it couldn't move much further from its starting position near the CPZ. As Micro-Mute struggled to get out of the CPZ, Sir Killalot came in to attack it, but Micro-Mute circled round the House Robot's claw to avoid it. Micro-Mute continued to spin round, bashing into Sir Killalot's tracks several times with its front end as it did so. Then, for a few seconds, Micro-Mute's wheel appeared to unseize, and after driving once into Sir Killlaot, it reversed and charged out of the CPZ, zooming past a largely immobile Gi-Ant-O, and into Matilda's CPZ. The same wheel then seized up again, and Micro-Mute couldn't pull away from Matilda's flywheel. It hid beneath Matilda, but was hit by the flywheel after trying to break free, immobilising it completely and spinning it away. It was then sliced from behind by Matilda's flywheel, causing more damage. Micro-Mute then received a third hit from Matilda, cutting further into the armour near one of the wheels, and the former finalist was subsequently counted out by the Refbot, before Micro-Mute was flipped into its left arm by Matilda's tusks. Sir Killalot shoved Micro-Mute against the arena wall, then picked it up with is claw, before carrying it over to hold its remains over Matilda's flywheel. More damage from the house robots was inflicted, and Adam Emmett walked out of his control booth in frustration. Sir Killalot continued to parade Micro-Mute across the arena in his grip whilst Matilda activated the pit, and Micro-Mute's remains were eventually pitted, eliminating it from the competition, along with Gi-Ant-O, who had also been immobilised. Results |} Wins/Losses *Wins: 1 *Losses: 2 Series Record Micro-Mute rear.jpg|Micro-Mute from the rear Mutedestroyed.jpg|The destroyed remains of Micro-Mute Trivia *Micro-Mute was one of the last two robots to appear on the original run of Robot Wars without a moving weapon, the other being T-Wrecks. The active weapon rule did not apply to featherweights or antweightsSeries 7 rules. References External Links *Micro-Mute on the Team Mute website (archived) Category:Featherweights Category:Robots from Staffordshire Category:UK Series competitors Category:Robots with more Losses than Wins Category:Robots with Spikes Category:Sit-and-Spin Robots Category:Robots which debuted in Extreme 2